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Microstratigraphy and Faunal Records from a Shell Midden on the Hyperarid Coast of the Atacama Desert (Taltal, Chile)

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South American Contributions to World Archaeology

Part of the book series: One World Archaeology ((WORLDARCH))

Abstract

The present work contains the first microstratigraphic study of a shell midden located on the hyperarid coast of the Atacama Desert (Chile), Pacific coast of South America. We combined micromorphology with faunal data from the Middle Holocene shell midden site of Zapatero to understand site formation processes from a dual geoarchaeological and zooarchaeological perspective. Geoarchaeological methods included soil micromorphology, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometry (FTIR) and micro-FTIR. This combined approach identified three main moments of formation and occupation at Zapatero: one starting around 7000 cal yr BP, when successive centimetre-thick layers of predominantly shellfish were continuously accumulated; a second moment between 6600 and 6400 cal yr BP, when decametric layers of fish bones and shellfish remains were intermittently deposited; and a third and final moment that is characterized by the complete reworking of the shell midden, possibly by a tsunami that affected the north of Chile about 4000 years ago. Micromorphological data provided paleoclimatic information from the Middle Holocene to the present time, with evidence of drier conditions during the first moment of formation/occupation, and more humid conditions during the second and third moments. It also revealed a larger abundance of decayed fish bones than what was indicated by faunal analysis, suggesting potential taphonomic pathways for the faunal remains. The micro-components identified in the third moment of formation/occupation offer complementary evidence to support the tsunami hypothesis affecting the upper layers at Zapatero.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the financial support of FONDECYT projects 1151203, 3170913, and FAPESP grant 2015/19405-6. FTIR and micro-FTIR analyses were done at the Institute for Archaeological Sciences, University of Tübingen (Germany). Micromorphological analyses were done at the Microarchaeology Laboratory of the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, University of Sao Paulo.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Ximena S. Villagran

  2. Centro de Estudios Avanzados en Zonas Áridas (CEAZA), Coquimbo, Chile

    Carola Flores

  3. Departamento de Biología Marina, Facultad de Ciencias del Mar, Universidad Católica del Norte, Coquimbo, Chile

    Carola Flores

  4. Universidad Católica del Norte, Antofagasta, Chile

    Laura Olguín

  5. Centro de Estudios Arqueológicos e Históricos Aikén, CaSEs Research Group (Culture and Socio-Ecological Dynamics), CSIC-UPF, Departament de Prehistòria, Universidat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain

    Sandra Rebolledo

  6. Departamento de Antropología, Universidad SEK, Santiago, Chile

    Valentina Durán

  7. Departamento de Antropología, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile

    Consuelo Sandoval & Diego Salazar

  8. Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de Concepción, Concepción, Chile

    Pedro Andrade

  9. Universidad Católica del Norte, San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

    Cesar Borie

  10. Université de Provence, Aix-Marseille, CNRS, Marseille, France

    Jean-Louis Guendon

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  1. Ximena S. Villagran
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  10. Diego Salazar
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Correspondence to Ximena S. Villagran .

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  1. CONICET-División Arqueología del Museo de La Plata, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo Universidad Nacional de La Plata, La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Mariano Bonomo

  2. Department of Anthropology, University of Los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia

    Sonia Archila

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Villagran, X.S. et al. (2021). Microstratigraphy and Faunal Records from a Shell Midden on the Hyperarid Coast of the Atacama Desert (Taltal, Chile). In: Bonomo, M., Archila, S. (eds) South American Contributions to World Archaeology. One World Archaeology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73998-0_10

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